RUSSIA - Moscow hospital fire kills dozens

[Guest guest]

Saturday,

9 December 2006, 06:20 GMT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moscow

hospital fire kills dozens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire safety

officers had called for the hospital's closure

 

 

 

A

fire at a Moscow drug rehabilitation hospital has killed 45 women, most of them

young addicts.

Officials say they are " 90% certain " that arson caused

the blaze at Moscow's Hospital 17, in the

south-west of the city, early on Saturday

morning.

All appeared to have died of smoke asphyxiation even

before the first firefighters reached the building.

Recommendations earlier this year to close the hospital on fire

safety grounds were reportedly ignored.

Fire safety officers visited the hospital in

February and March, and called for its temporary closure after their second

visit, said Russia's chief fire inspector Yuri

Nenashev.

" Unfortunately this decision was not adopted, " said Mr

Nenashev.

Firefighters rescued 160 people from the building, and 10 have

been hospitalised with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Moscow's chief fire inspector said

their lives remained in the balance.

Forty-two people died at the scene, with others dying later in

hospital. Two staff are among the dead.

'Windows

barred'

The hospital had been slow to

raise the alarm after the fire broke out in a second-floor cafeteria, said a spokesman for the

Moscow fire brigade.

" Secondly, the hospital personnel worked

very badly, they did not take steps to evacuate people in the early stages of

the fire, " said Yevgeny Bobylyov, the Associated Press news agency

reported.

However, there were suggestions that staff had been overcome so

rapidly by smoke that they had been incapable of taking action.

The walls were reportedly covered with plastic, making the fumes

especially hazardous.

A further problem was the lack of exits.

" It was a very particular building with five storeys and

only one exit and bars on the windows because it was a drug treatment hospital, "

said Irina Andrianova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Emergencies

Ministry.

" Judging by the placement of the bodies, they really tried

to get out, " said Alexander Chupriyanov, the deputy emergency situations

minister.

" Everyone who died as a result of this fire, died before

the first fire engines came, and those were at the site four minutes after

the call, " he told Russia's Itar-Tass

news agency.

Signs of arson

More than 20 fire engines were sent to the site, where they

battled the flames and smoke for an hour before bringing the blaze under

control.

" The fire was relatively small, only 100 square metres. But

there was very thick smoke, and people got poisoned by smoke in their

sleep, " one rescue official told Itar-Tass.

Fire inspector Yuri Nenashev

said that he was " 90% " sure the fire was started deliberately.

" No technical means such as heaters, wires or such were

found... there was only a wooden shelf, which was the fire's centre, and

that indicates arson, " he said.

Russia

records about 18,000 fire deaths a year, the Associated Press reports, 10

times higher than in the US.

Last December seven people died in a fire at an institute for

the mentally ill near Moscow.

And in 2003 36 students died and some 170 were hurt at a hostel

for foreign students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6163835.stm

 

Dasha: Ra/Ve/Mo/Ra/Me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

satva

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jorge Angelino

 

 

Rua da Sociedade Filarmónica

Perpétua Azeitonense, 29

2925-598 Azeitão

Portugal

 

 

 

 

jorge.angelino

 

 

 

 

 

 

mobile:

Skype ID:

 

 

+351963916784

 

jorge_angelino

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add me to your address book...

 

 

Want a signature like

this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--

 

 

Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.15/579 - Release 07.12.2006 13:31